EVANSTON, Ill. — New quarterback Preston Stone passed for 245 yards and his first three touchdowns with Northwestern, leading the Wildcats to a 42-7 rout of Western Illinois on Friday night.
Hayden Eligon II, Hunter Welcing and Drew Wagner pulled in Stone’s scoring passes.
Cam Porter rushed for a touchdown and 91 yards as Northwestern (1-1) dominated its home opener at Martin Stadium, its temporary lakeside field. Backup QB Ryan Boe fought off a defender and raced 58 yards for a score midway through the fourth quarter and Luke Akers added a pair of field goals.
Stone, a graduate transfer from SMU, connected on 21 of 29 passes. He recovered nicely after throwing a career-high four interceptions in his Wildcats debut — a 23-3 loss at Tulane last week. Griffin Wilde caught five passes for 94 yards to help boost Northwestern’s total yards to 526.
Coach David Braun expected Stone to roar back.
“He showed up at Sunday’s practice flying around,” Braun said, “I mean buzzing around on Monday, confident, resilient, excited to bounce back for this team.”
Stone credited the entire Wildcats squad for a high-energy response to the loss to the Green Wave.
“Coming off a game where we only scored three points, that was disappointing,” Stone said. “But I think I can speak for the whole offense that there wasn’t any disbelief or doubt that we could put it together.”
Porter didn’t return after limping to the sidelines with a lower-body injury six minutes into the third quarter. Two trainers helped him off the field after he emerged from a pileup. The six-year grad student led Northwestern in rushing in 2020, 2023 and 2024.
Western Illinois scored on backup QB Cason Carswell’s 8-yard pass to Christian Anaya with 2:49 remaining,
Western Illinois (0-2) was limited to 181 yards. Leathernecks starting quarterback Chris Irvin was held to 27 yards on 5-for-18 passing before Carswell entered and went 6 for 8 for 52 yards
Northwestern scored its first two touchdowns of the season on its first two possessions, then expanded its lead to 22-0 at the half.
Porter spun away from traffic at midfield and raced 43 yards for a score 3:02 into the game to complete a six-play drive.
“Coming out tonight and scoring on that first drive, I think that definitely did open up the floodgates for us to have a great night as a whole,” Stone said.
Stone’s floating 46-yard pass up the middle to Wilde got the next drive started. Five plays later, Stone fired a 5-yard TD to Eligon. Lawson Albright ran in a 2-point conversion to make it 15-0.
Welcing’s 6-yard TD catch with 28 seconds left put the Wildcats up 22-0 at the half.
Wagner had a 4-yard TD catch in the fourth.
Boe knows rushing
Boe, a first-year redshirt, scored his first touchdown on a highlight-reel keeper. Starting at the Northwestern 38, he faked a handoff and started running down the left side. Boe stiff-armed and knocked down Western Illinois’ Justin Richardson, then kept chugging until he tumbled into the end zone.
Breakups
The Wildcats defense broke up eight passes with one interception. Fred Davis II and Josh Fussell had three breakups each. Mac Uihlein had the pick.
The takeaway
Western Illinois: The Ohio Valley Conference-Big South school opened its season the hard way: against two Big Ten opponents. The Leathernecks were pounded 52-3 at Illinois last week when they managed just 163 yards.
Northwestern: Preston and Porter, Northwestern’s offensive leaders, were able to enjoy a tune-up for Big Ten play starting next week. The question: Porter’s health. He was on crutches after the game and Braun didn’t have an update.
Up next
Western Illinois hosts Valparaiso Sept. 13.
Northwestern plays its first Big Ten game Sept. 13, hosting No. 6 Oregon.
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